Passing the Time
by Sandileina
Summary: The Rikkai boys are waiting for their first match of Zenkoku. They pass the time in their usual Rikkai way.


**Disclaimer:** If only. If only, if only, if only. But if I owned it, it probably wouldn't be as brilliant, so maybe it's a good thing all round…

**Rating:** … PG?

**Warnings:** Insanity all round. -.-

**Summary: **The Rikkai boys are waiting for their first match of Zenkoku. They pass the time in their usual Rikkai way.

**Author's notes: **Ah HAH, another Rikkai drabblething. This stemmed from a very odd dream I had, in which, at the end right before I woke up, Yukimura and Akutsu (yes, you read that right) were seducing each other. o.0 One of the most bizarre PoT dreams ever. But anyway. Luckily, neither Akutsu nor that plot will be appearing here, mwa. I just wanted to get that dream off my chest. ;)

Takes place after **Times of Stress**, and just before **How to ask out Marui Bunta**. Yes, I've decided to put my drabblethings in some sort of continuous thingy. Mwa.

This is for **Ashwings101**. Because she agreed that Rikkai needs more love. Here you go, dahl. ;)

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The sun peeked nervously out from behind a cloud.

The day was pleasantly warm. Although, of course, it was still too warm for Yagyuu, who had never been at home in the heat. Unfortunate if you happened to live in the more southernly part of Japan, like he did.

The entire tennis team, minus Yanagi who'd been assigned soda duty, were sitting/lying/louging on one of the spectator stands. On Yukimura's insistance they had arrived a good twenty minutes before they even had to hand in their registration forms. That way, minimum stress for him and Jackal, and maximum anticipation of his first real tennis match in far too long.

"Penguin."

All heads turned to look at the youngest member of the team with varying expressions on their faces, ranging from amused (Niou) to downright bewildered (Sanada).

Kirihara didn't seem to want to elaborate, lying with his head in Marui's lap and looking up at the clouds. After a moment, Jackal ventured, "What are you talking about now?"

"Penguin," Akaya repeated, looking pleased with himself.

"We heard you the first time, baby brat. What've penguins got to do with anything?" Niou drawled. He received the usual short scowl for the nickname.

"It's been bugging me for a while, see. I couldn't think of an animal that suited Yagyuu-senpai, but I finally thought of one." 'Praise me', his expression said smugly.

"… A penguin?" Yagyuu repeated. It was a pity that the team couldn't see his eyes, since he was sitting at just the right angle for the sun's glare to reflect off his glasses.

"Why a penguin, Akaya?" asked Yukimura.

Akaya wrinkled his nose. "Cos he doesn't like the heat."

There was a moment of silence as the others digested this.

"Well," said Marui thoughtfully, "the logic stands."

Niou sat up, narrowly missing headbutting Sanada in the chin. "How many purple penguins have _you_ seen?" he demanded, raising a skeptical eyebrow. "Besides, penguins are little round waddling things. Hiroshi's not like that at all."

"He would be if he was pregnant," Akaya pointed out. Marui smirked and ruffled Akaya's hair in the way he knew irritated him the most.

"Ah now, Aka-chan, we've been through this. When a woman and a man love each other very, very much-"

He was stopped abruptly by a precise (and very hard) flick on the nose. "I _know_, Marui," Akaya scowled. "That's why I said _if_."

"Senpai," Marui muttered, rubbing his smarting nose. Akaya ignored him.

"Can we change the subject please?" Yagyuu asked, sounding as polite as ever, but looking just a little bit confused. "I'm not sure I like where this conversation is going, frankly. And I think fukubuchou is getting a headache."

The three complied, and the others were treated to four blissful seconds of peace, before Marui piped up, "So if that's been bugging you for a while, what did you decide the rest of us were?"

There was a miniature outcry from Jackal, Yagyuu and Sanada. "Don't start that conversation again!" Yagyuu almost growled.

"But I'm curious now! I won't be able to play well unless I know!" Marui protested. "And I don't even have any gum or anything until Renji gets back. Ne, 'Mura, aren't you curious too?" he appealed to their amused captain.

"We can't have Bunta unable to play properly," Yukimura said, deciding to humour the pouting boy.

Yagyuu got up wearily. "I think I'll go and help Yanagi with drinks and things," he muttered, stepping carefully over Niou's sprawled legs and nimbly avoiding his attempt to trip him with practised ease.

"Bring me back lots of gum!" Marui called after him. Yagyuu gave a small wave of acknowledgement over his shoulder and Marui looked back down at Akaya. "So? What's Renji?"

"A crocodile," was the prompt reply. "Cos he's mean and kinda creepy when he's in a data collecting mood. And mean."

"You already said 'mean'," Niou said automatically.

"What's this?" Jackal looked puzzled. "I thought you liked Yanagi?"

Akaya scowled again. "No. He's mean."

Yukimura let out a small chuckle. "Ah, I see. Still bearing a grudge, Aka-chan?" he smiled. When Akaya nodded and Jackal continued to look blank, he explained, "Remember when Renji asked Haru and Marui to help Akaya practise? He let you have a day off. Poor Aka-chan got scared and tried to escape," he said.

Jackal looked even more surprised. "That was two weeks ago! You're still bearing a grudge?"

"It's gotten a lot better," Marui reassured his doubles partner. "He used to refuse to be on the same court as him, but I guess you're starting to forgive him a little, hmm?" He directed the last comment to Akaya, who denied this with a vigorous shake of his head.

"So what am I?" Niou asked, bringing the subject back where he felt it belonged.

Taking a moment to think, Akaya answered, "A killer whale." Marui burst out laughing.

"He's got you there, Haru!" he cackled, pulling gleefully on the end of Niou's pontytail. The trickster retaliated by kicking him sharply on the shin, and Marui was forced to retreat behind Sanada's back with little yelps of pain. "Definitely a killer whale," he muttered crossly, rubbing at his leg.

Sanada levelled a warning glare at Niou, who was smirking. "Don't injure him or you'll run thirty laps," he warned.

"Yes, fukubuchou," Niou said immediately, face not changing expression.

"Seriously, Haru," Yukimura said, voice mild. "I won't be happy if we lose the very first match of the Tournament. As good as Jackal is, doubles is called doubles for a reason."

Instantly, Niou lowered his eyes. "Alright, Mura," he said, tone as apologetic as his pride would suffer it being. Yukimura nodded and Sanada pried Marui off his back.

"Mura-buchou's a lynx," Akaya announced suddenly.

Yukimura tilted his head to one side, evidently quite liking the idea. "What's your reasoning behind that?"

"Cos even though lions are all big and scary and stuff, lynxes are way better at getting what they want. They're prettier too," he added.

"That's sweet," Yukimura smiled, reaching over to ruffle Akaya's hair fondly. The boy grinned smugly.

Niou suddenly sat up again. "Wait, hang on… Is fukubuchou the lion, then?"

There was another pause, then Marui burst out laughing again. "Hell yeah!" he chortled. "Smart, Kiri-kun! I didn't spot that."

Sanada glared and visibly restrained himself from ordering Kirihara, Niou and Marui to run laps. But he lightened up when Yukimura placed a consoling hand on his forearm, a fact that the ever-watchful Niou filed away in his head for later use.

"What am I, then?" Jackal asked, finally giving in to his curiousity despite himself.

"An elephant."

"Hey! I'm not fat!"

"I don't get it," Marui said over Jackal's indignant protests. "How is Jackal an elephant? Shouldn't he be a Jackal?"

"No, cos elephants come from Brazil," Akaya explained.

"Wait, what? No they don't," Jackal said. "They come from Africa."

Akaya sat up, having finally decided that the bench wasn't nearly as comfortable without Marui as a pillow. "Brazil's in Africa, though, right?"

"No! South America!"

"… Oh."

"And _this_ is why Yanagi decided the baby brat needed tutoring," Niou said snidely. He received a glare from said brat, who knew better than to retaliate physically.

"Then he's a…" Akaya thought for a moment. "Ne, Mura-buchou? What animals come from Brazil?"

"_Yukimura_-buchou," Sanada corrected for the eighthundredth time.

"Yeah, that."

Yukimura gave a small shrug. "Shouldn't you ask Jackal?"

"Nah," Akaya shook his head, "cos he'll only come up with the animals he'd like to be."

"Boy has a point," Marui mused.

Yukimura chewed the inside of his cheek for a few seconds, a small frown on his face as he tried to think. "What about… a giant armadillo?" he suggested. They're masters of defence, just like Jackal."

Akaya brightened up, and even Jackal didn't look displeased. "Yeah! Jackal's a giant armadillo," he announced, pleased.

"That's everyone, then," Sanada muttered, sounding relieved.

"Hate to burst your bubble, but we haven't heard what Marui and the baby brat himself are," Niou pointed out. It was obvious by the look on Sanada's face that he wanted to ignore his own warning and kick the trickster.

"Hey, yeah! What are we?"

Akaya broke out into a smirk. "I'm a bear cub, and you're a lobster."

"I'm a _what_!"

"A lobster."

"A _lobster_!"

"A lobster."

"… You what!"

"A lobster."

"I heard you! How am I a lobster?" Evidently, Marui wasn't at all pleased by his animal representative.

"Cos of your hair," Akaya sniggered. "And you went _bright_ red when Niou-senpai made you kiss me under the mistletoe last Christmas."

Marui was temporarily speechless. But he recovered himself and lunged for his kouhai, who was already up on his feet and racing away, laughing demonically. "You little brat! Get back here!" he yelled, giving chase.

"Marui! Kirihara! Come back, you'll get lost!" shouted Sanada, but the two were already out of hearing range. He got up and ran after them, Jackal following to help. Yukimura watched them go with a resigned expression. So much for minimum stress.

"So much for minimum stress," Niou said idly, displaying his uncanny ability to take the words straight out of Yukimura's mind.

"Hmm," the captain sighed. "I suppose it was too much to hope for."

"Of course."

A few seconds of companiable silence.

Yanagi and Yagyuu turned the corner and stopped short when they saw only Yukimura and Niou still where they'd left them. They reached the same conclusion at roughly the same time and just dumped the contents of the small bags onto a bench, sitting down with sighs.

"Ahh, aren't we such a wonderfully dysfunctional little family?" Niou drawled, pulling out a can of grape juice from the nearest bag.

"Hmm. Doubles match?"

"Yeah, alright. C'mon Hiroshi, let's see if we can beat Mura at doubles."

"Would you like the percentage odds on that?"

"Only if I can eat them. We get first serve, though."

"Oh, wait, it looks like Aka-chan is coming back."

"Oh yeah."

"And there goes Jackal."

"He looks pretty angry, doesn't he?"

"Well, he also looks pretty wet. Maybe that's why."

"Think we should lend a hand?"

"Don't be stupid, Hiroshi. Let's just go play doubles. Besides, fukubuchou's got it covered."

"Isn't that him? What's he doing on the ground?"

The sun scuttled back behind its cloud again and refused to come out for the rest of the morning.

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Sandy: Mwa. xDD

Please review! They feed my soul. And they inspire me to write more. ;)

I'm still looking for someone to do a PoT roleplay with me over email (I already have one lovely person, but the more the merrier! You can never have too many rp partners). Just to get ideas and inspiration, yanno?  Unfortunately, I'm fairly picky people I rp with. I ask that you're able to type at least three sentences for a reply, and that you're… well, good. 0.- I don't know how else to put it, really. But if you're interested, then please let me know. If I don't want to rp with you anymore, I promise to let you know –nods- so don't worry about that. –Cheesy grin- Any takers…?


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